Andres Macineira Cuban Stars Baseball Club

National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba (1906)

This contract signed Andres Macineira to play for the Cuban Stars Baseball Club (Cuban Stars of Santiago) for the 1906 baseball season.  Macineira was to be paid $ 22.50 per week.  The contract has the red and blue Cuban Stars seal and is dated March 11, 1906.The contract is signed by Andres Macineira and Manuel Camps, the owner and manager of the team. This is the oldest known contract related to Negro League baseball.

According to Sol White in his book History of Colored Baseball, the Cuban Stars Baseball Club, or Cuban Stars of Santiago as the team was better known, was formed in 1905 by Manuel Camps of Brooklyn, New York. Manuel Camps was a Cuban who had naturalized to the United States and lived in Brooklyn, New York. He was in the cigar business selling handmade cigars from Havana called La Flor de Manuel Camps. The Cuban Stars of Santiago were part of the National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba. This association was one of the first associations or leagues in the United States for black baseball. According to Sol White, the Cuban Stars of Santiago included all Cuban players and was the top Cuban baseball team playing in the United States.  Top players for the Cuban Stars of Santiago included: Luis Anguila Bustamante, Pedro Medina, Almeida, Palimino, Garcia, Valdes, Molina, Perez and Prats. The Cuban Stars of Santiago played twelve months a year. This, according to Sol White, overextended the team’s ability on the field. The Cuban Stars of Santiago baseball team only lasted two years (1905-1906).  When they were disbanded, Camps formed a new team, the All Cubans. Camps owned and managed this team until he sold it in 1908 to Abel Linares. Linares turned this team into the famous Cuban Stars.

Little is known of Andres Macineira other than he signed to play for the Cuban Stars of Santiago in 1906. There is a Macineira that played at the turn of the century in Cuba, but it is unclear if this is the same person.